The growth of the railway around Heanor
Map and Time-line
![](https://www.heanorhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/wp6df6800e_05_06-1.webp)
Growth | |
1832 | Famous meeting at the Sun Inn, Eastwood, the “birth” of the Midland Railway |
1836 | Parliamentary approval for Midland Counties line, connecting Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. Plans for line along Erewash Valley dropped |
1839 | Line from Derby to Nottingham opened |
1840 | Line from Trent to Leicester opened |
1844 | Merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway, and the Birmingham and Derby Railway, to form the Midland Railway Company |
1847 | Midland Railway line from Trent to Codnor Park opened, including stations at “Langley Mill for Heanor” and Shipley Gate |
1849 | Line extended to Pinxton |
1861 | Erewash Valley line extended from Codnor Park to Clay Cross – now becomes a main line from north to south |
1875 | Great Northern open branch line from Awsworth to Pinxton, with stations at Newthorpe and “Eastwood & Langley Mill” |
1890 | Midland Railway open branch line from Ripley to Heanor (Midland Road), with station at “Crosshill & Codnor” |
1891 | Great Northern open line from Ilkeston to Heanor (Heanor Gate), with station also at Marlpool |
1895 | Midland Railway’s Ripley to Heanor line extended to Langley Mill station |
Decline | |
1926 | Midland Railway passenger service between Langley Mill and Ripley ceased |
1928 | Great Northern close Marlpool station, and run only one unadvertised train each way per day between Heanor and Ilkeston |
1929 | Track between Ripley and Heanor removed. Track from Heanor to main line at Milnhay remains for goods traffic |
1939 | Heanor Great Northern station closed |
1948 | Shipley Gate Station closed |
1951 | Heanor Goods Station (Midland Road) closed |
1963 | Great Northern Pinxton branch, including Eastwood & Langley Mill closed to passenger traffic |
1967 | Langley Mill Station closed |
1986 | Langley Mill Station re- |
![The Midland Railway Crosshill & Codnor station, on the Langley Mill to Ripley branch line. Closed in 1926.](https://www.heanorhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/wp834b3272_05_06.webp)
![The Midland main line at Langley Mill in the 1960s, looking from the Bridge Street to North Street footbridge, showing the gas tanks and the Pickersgill and Frost foundry.](https://www.heanorhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/wp7eda007f_05_06.webp)
See the separate page on the Great Northern at Eastwood and Langley Mill Station for a gallery of photos taken shortly after the station closed in 1963.